Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1887-07-13
RUSSIAN FIRE FOUNTAINS.


The great town Of Baku has now. q
#coastrline Of about s miles, sweeping
round q Wellprotected harbor crowded
with shipping ships Of all tonnage, all
fitted with tanks to store the oil that
pours from ahundred fountains. From
time immemorial this spot has been
deemed sacred by the Ghebres of Persia,
who recognise in the flame of the
native naphtha a sacred FIRE SYM
boil. Here for at least 1000 years
the sacred earth-fed flame has burned
increasingly. and the temple of Surukhani
has been center Of reverent pilgrim
age. This native naphtha flows from
the soil in so pure form as to burn
without rectifcation, and is indeed so
inf1amnlable that the naphtha gas oc-
casionally ignites spontaneously and
plays in pale flames above assures in
the rocks. On stormy nights these
flames have been seen to blaze up with
an awful spirit light, which, in the eyes
of the Ghebres, invested the spot with
special sanctity-a sanctity intensified
by the fact that here, according to
Arabian chroniclers, great volcanic
mountain was in full action till 500
years ago. Since then the thermal
forces have expended their energies in
spouting oil and Herewith saturating
the desert plain of the Apsheron Pen
insula; and truly more repulsive
site for great city could not we'll be
found.
1t is plain about fifteen miles in
width and projecting thirty miles into
the Caspian from the point where the
Caucasus terminates on its shores. The
whole surface of the ground is black
with waste petroleum which in cold
weather hardens to the consistency of
asphalt, where beneath the blazing
midsummer sun the foot sinks in to the
depth of three inches Every breath Of
wind raises binding clouds of black
bituminous dust, formed by the coarse
black naptha with which the streets are
p aetieany :'watered' '-true water be-
ing too precious to be thus wasted.
This dust. combined with the dense
smoke poured from the chimnexs Of
somewhere about 800 refining factories,
does nothing to improve the atmos-
phere. And here, day and night, the
oil fountains pour forth their hideous
black streams They yield an average
of from 25 to IS per cent of pure oil,
and from 20 to so per cent of refuse,
which makes excellent fuel for the
great fleets of oil steamers and To-
eomotives- The supply may well be
deemed inexhaustible, inasmuch as H.
geo square miles in this region are
found to be oleierous. and of this vast
surface only six miles have as yet been
developed. The oil-bearing stratum
extends beneath the Caspian Sea, where
it crops mp in Tchelikan, true isle of
oil. Here the Oil literally streams into
the sea from hills and cliffs which may
be said to be formed of ozokerite-in
other words, of crude paraffine.
On the eastern shore of the Caspian
t reappears at various points--as, for
Instance, at the Nett or Naptha Hill
where the deposits are officially valued
tt f35 900, 900. Then. again as Baku
les at the eastern extremity Of the eau
;sisus range, so at its western extremity
les an Oil field extending over about
!5o miles. It terminates in the PENN
ula of Taman, between the Black Sea
md Sea Of Azov, a region Astounding
Inactive nlud-yolcanoes and occasionally
haken By earthquakes.
Now the iire-giant, who tends the
reat laboratory beneath the Caspian
Gems disposed to emulate the example
his brethren in New Zealand and
onga. Hitherto he had been satisfied
18th such sport as turning on such an
il stream as that which gushed forth
nree years ago from one of the Baku
prings. spouting with such force as to
reak to pieces 3-inch cast-iron plate
=hich had been fastened over the well
order to divert the flow to different
irection- A neigh boring oil spring, on
eIng tapped, threw up a column OF
etroleum to twice the height of the
! reat Geyser in Iceland, forming a
| uge black fountain POO feet in height
| fountain. however, attributed solely to
I re removal of the pressure on the con-
7 -aed gas, as there is no perceptible
t eat In these geysers-
! It was visible for many miles around;
| I'd on the first day it poured forth
>out $4,000 barrels. and, with gradu-
" diminishing volume. continued to
ay for five months. when it finally
| bsided, leaving its unfortunate owner
III Americaneompany) well nigh ruined
| the claims brought against it by
| ighbors whose lands were destroyed
the oil flood. One house, which
,od near the spring. now lies buried